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1CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Our law must provide justice; law and justicecannot remain
distant neighbours
P.N. Bhagwati1The Lok Adalat has not been an unknown institution
of
Indian justice delivery system. Now, it is no longer
anexperiment in India, but it is an effective and
efficient,pioneering and palliative alternative mode of dispute
settlementwhich is accepted as a viable, economic, efficient,
informal,expeditious form of resolution of disputes.2 Today, Lok
Adalatsystem is taken to be the repository of public confidence in
viewof its intrinsic strength which knows no barricades as it
flowsthrough the basic human percepts of equity, good
conscience,fair play and natural justice. The seed of Lok Adalat
mechanismwas sown in 1982 in Gujarat which has now grown as a
largetree whose branches has been reached in every nook and
cornerof the country. It is a democratized and alternative form
offormal justice delivery system. It has been developed
bycontinuous efforts of people with the intention to find
anappropriate structure and procedure for providing speedy andless
expensive justice to them. Lok Adalat strives to bring abouta
conciliatory settlement in a dispute without using coercion,threat,
fraud or undue influence against the parties to thedispute. The
institution of Lok Adalat tries to resolve thedisputes by
discussions, counselling, persuasions, negotation,conciliation and
with the mutual and free consent of the
1. See K.M.H. Rayappa, Lok Adalat : Objectives,
Pre-Requisites,Strategis and Organisation, 14 Indian Bar Review,
711 at 715(1987).
2. Jitender N. Bhatt, "A Round Table Justice Through Lok
Adalat(People's Court) A Vibrant ADR in India," (2002) 1 SCC (Jour)
11.
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2parties. The Lok Adalat functions not as a substitute but as
asupplementary to the ordinary courts for reducing the workload of
these courts.
The vernacular meaning of Lok Adalat is Peoples Courtbut it does
not seem to be an ordinary court in its acceptedconnotation. There
is no standardized or statuary definition ofthe term, it is now
widely accepted as an informal, voluntary,dispute settlement agency
involving the people and publicspirited lawyers and citizens.3 The
basic idea behind thescheme of Lok Adalat is to speed up clearance
of pendency ofhuge arrears in courts and fulfil the Constitutional
goal ofaccess to equal, fair and efficacious justice to all
irrespective ofreligion, race, caste, sex, place of birth and
socio-economicposition.
It is a participatory justice forum developed by
contestedparties, lawyers, judges, law teachers, social activists,
legalaiders and public spirited people belonging to every walk of
life.The forum is contrived for enabling the common people
toventilate their grievances against the State agencies or
againstother citizens and to seek a just settlement of their
disputes. Itsmain function is to enable the parties who voluntarily
seek theAdalats intervention to understand their respective rights
andobligations with reference to the dispute brought before it
andto help keep the dialogue going in a fair manner.4 Apart
frombeing good samaritans role of members of Lok Adalat is
toclarify the law and by gentle persuasion to convince the
partieshow they stand to gain by an agreed settlement.5
3. N.R. Madhava Menon, Lok Adalat in Delhi: A Report from a
LegalEducation Perspective, 12 Indian Bar Review, 415 at 416
(1985).
4. N.R. Madhava Menon, Lok Adalat : Peoples Programme for
SpeedyJustice, 13 Indian Bar Review, 129 at 132 (1986).
5. Ibid.
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3The salient features of this form of dispute resolution
areparticipation, accomodation, fairness,
expectation,voluntariness, neighbourliness, transparency,
efficiency andlack of animosity.6 Lok Adalat strive to resolve the
disputes,which are not only pending in courts but also those, which
havenot yet reached courts, by adopting persuasive methods,common
sense and human approach to the problems ofdisputants.
Lok Adalat is fairly on old form of adjudicating systemprevailed
in ancient India. Lok Adalat has long tradition andhistory to
settle the disputes on basis of principles of honesty,fair play and
moral character as embodied in Indian cultureand civilization. The
institution was prevailed in the Indiansociety at the grass root
level in name of People's Court orPopular Court or Panchayats. The
village Panchayats orPeople's Court, as an integral part of justice
delivery system,played a very remarkable role in ancient and
medieval Indiaalso. The importance and functioning of this
institution hasbeen discussed in the texts of Yajnavalkya, Narad,
Gautama,Kautilya, Brihaspati, Manu and Bhrigu. Generally,
thesePeople's Court were of three kinds namely Puga, Sreni andKula.
These court were consisted of local, reputed and honestpersons who
decided the matters without following any rigidand complex
proceedural laws and provided justice to thedisputants at their
doorsteps. They did not give importance tothe legal technicalities
and laid much stress upon the amicablesettlement of the disputes.
The mechanism brought theharmony and unity in society and
endeavoured to further thesocial solidarity.
6. Anurag, K. Agarwal, Strengthening Lok Adalat movement in
India,AIR 2006 Jour 33 at 35.
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4During Muslim period in India, these people's court
withdifferent names as panchayats continuously functioned withminor
variations. Throughout the Muslim rule there was nodirect or
systematic state control of the administration ofjustice in the
villages where most of India lived.7 At that time,these panchayats
were empowered to dispense justice in allpetty civil and criminal
matters in accordance with the customor usages of the locality,
caste, trade or family. The Muslimrulers traditionally enjoyed and
occasionally exercised a generalpower of supervision over all these
popular courts. Theprocedure followed by these courts was quite
simple, systematicand informal. There was no regular administration
of justice, nocertain means of filing a suit and fixed rules of
proceeding afterthe suit had been filed.8 These People's Court or
VillagePanchayats worked for a long time and existed even at the
timeof commencement of the British rule in India. The British
rulersdiscouraged administering of justice through People's Courts
orvillage Panchayats and established their own hierarchy offormal
courts to render justice in civil and criminal matters.They moulded
the ancient Indian legal system according to theirvested interest
with the result that the functioning of people'scourt withered away
and became empty and suffocating withengulfing nothingness.9 In
this way, they gave a death blow tothe functioning of people's
courts.
However, after independence, the existing judicial systemhas
also not fulfil the passionate demand of justice of people inthe
country. Because, the present justice delivery system wasinherited
from the Britishers being archaic and sudden withobscurantism is
not suitable to the Indian socio-economic
7. Sen Gupta, Evolution of Ancient Indian Law, 112(1953).8. U.C.
Sarkar, Epoches In Hindu Legal History, 250 (1958).9. P.
Parameswaran, "Dispensation of Justice : Problem of Cost,
Quality and Delay," AIR 1991 Jour 31.
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5structure and its tradition and culture. There are
severalhurdles and barriers in the way of getting justice by
commonman in the ordinary courts such as cost of
litigation,corruption, delay in disposal of cases, outdated and
technicalprocedures, delay due to appeal, review and revision
whichincrease the arrears at all level in judicial courts, etc. Due
tothese drawbacks of judicial system, the common man hasstarted
feeling that justice is a 'myth' or a 'fiction'. The abovementioned
factors have not only weakened the judicial systembut also swiftly
shaken the confidence of the people and theimage of the courts in
the society.10
In every civilization, access to justice has been a dream
oflegal lumanries, social workers, judges, downtrodden peopleand
the government also. Since, in the failure of the judicialsystem,
the people may start to use the inhuman and illegalmethods for
getting justice. Bearing this fear in mind, thefounding fathers of
our National Charter intended that thelargesse of law must belong
to all irrespective of religion, race,caste, creed, colour, sex,
wealth and income. Therefore, theframers embodied many provision11
in the Constitution in orderto promote the goal of justice and
establishing the conditionnecessary for its achievement. The
people's aspiration for trinityof justice, equality and liberty
remained to be eluding all theseyears as the people at the lowest
rung of the society found itwanting on account of their economic,
social and otherdisabilities and also for want of people's
participation in justicedelivery system i.e. Lok Adalat, until the
incorporation of Article39A of the Constitution in 1976.12 This
Article enjoins upon thestate to secure that the operation of the
legal system promotes
10. Prabha Bhargava, "Lok Adalat : Justice At the Door Steps,
2(1998).11. Preamble, Arts. 14, 21, 38, 39A and 40.12. Guman Singh,
"Permanent Lok Adalat for Public Utility Services : A
Statutory Land Mark," AIR 2003 Jour 354 at 355.
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6justice on the basis of equal opportunity by providing free
legalaid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way,
toensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied
toany citizen by reason of economic or other disability. Article39A
is a fool proof, fundamental and each Indian's title deed ofequal
justice through the legal system, a categoricalimperative.13
Similarly, Indian judiciary specially the Supreme Courthas
played a significant role as an activist engineer to achievethe end
of access to justice delivery mechanism. In catena ofcases,14 the
Apex Court has declared that the right to free legalaid and speedy
trial are the fundamental rights which comeunder the scope of
Articles 14, 21 and 39A. Therefore, theSupreme Court has also laid
down emphasis upon theestablishment of effective and qualitative
justice deliverymechanism. Thus, it seems that effective,
efficient, cheap andexpeditious justice through Lok Adalat system
is theConstitutional commitment under its provisions because
thesystem dispenses justice at the door steps of the people and
inthis sense, endeavours to achieve the wishes of founders of
theConstitution.
In the light of these Constitutional mandates, the modernversion
of Lok Adalat arose out of the concern expressed by thecommittees
setup to report on organising legal aid to the needyand poor people
and the alarm generated by judicial circle onmounting arrears of
cases pending for long time at different
13. V.R.K. Iyer, Equal Justice and Forensic Process : Truth and
Myth,14(2010).
14. Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar, AIR 1979 SC 1369;
ManekaGandhi v. Union of India, AIR 1978 SC 597; M.H. Hoskot v.
State ofMaharashtra, AIR 1978 SC 1548; Sunil Batra v. Delhi
Administration,AIR 1980 SC 1599; Khatri v. State of Bihar, AIR 1981
SC 928;People's Union of Democratic Rights v. Union of India, AIR
1982 SC1473; Sheela Barse v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1983 SC 378;
A.R.Antulay v. R.S. Nayak, (1992) SCC 225.
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7levels in the court system. The Report of Gujarat Legal
AidCommittee (1971), the Report on Processual Justice to thePeople
(1973) submitted to the Central Government and the"Juridicare:
Equal Justice Social Justice Report" (1977)submitted by P.N.
Bhagwati and V.R. Krishna Iyer JJconsistently advocated the need
for revival of informal systemsof dispute resolution.15
Further the setting up of the Committee for ImplementingLegal
Aid Schemes (CILAS) by the Union Government in 1980under the
Chairmanship of P.N. Bhagwati CJ (as he then was)gave an impetus to
the Legal Aid movement in general and theconcept of Legal Aid Camps
and Lok Adalats in particular. Theintroduction of Lok Adalat system
in Gujarat, as part of thestrategy of legal aid movement raised a
fond hope to themillions of poor people who are denied equal
justice under thepresent existing system. In order to implement the
right toaccess to justice for the weaker sections and to reduce
themounting arrears of cases in law courts, it is thought that
thelaw should be utilized as an instrument of socio-economicchange.
Keeping in view these objects, the Law Commission ofIndia in its
Report also recommended for the establishment andstrengthen the
Nyaya Panchayat at grass root level.16
It is evident that on the basis of these
appreciablerecommendations, the experiment of Lok Adalat was
started inGujarat in 1982. The first Lok Adalat was organized at
village'Una' on March 14, 1982 in Junagarh District and
inaguratedby Justice D.A. Desai. Soon, the Lok Adalat programme
wasadopted by many other States and Union Territories and withthe
passage of time, become very popular. In this backdrop, it
15. Supra note 1, 712.16. See one Hundred and Fourteenth Report
of Law Commission of India
on Gram Nyayalya, (1986).
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8became necessary to provide statutory backing to the LokAdalat
and awards given by them. It was felt that such astatutory support
would not only reduce the burden of arrearsof work in regular
courts, but would also take justice to thedoor-steps of the poor
and the needy and make justice quickerand less expensive. The
magintude of the task of providingstatutory forum to Lok Adalat has
been a cause of concern tothe judges, social workers, socially
approached lawyers, lawteachers and all those who thought it to be
the need of the dayto provide it uniform and competent efficacy
without hamperingits inherent spirit. This was possible by the
enactment of LegalServices Authorities Act, 1987 (for brevity 'The
Act') wherebythe Lok Adalat has been given statutory dimension and
the Actcame into force on 9 November 1995. The Act has been
enactedwith a view, firstly, free and competent legal services to
theweaker sections of the society and secondly, to ensure
thatopportunities for securing justice are not denied to any
citizenson account to economic or other disabilities and thirdly,
toorganise Lok Adalats so that operation of legal system
promotesjustice on the basis of equal opportunities. Therefore, the
majorpurposes of the Act are to provide Legal Aid, to impart
legalliteracy and to organise Lok Adalats with a view to
strengthenthe justice delivery mechanism and promote the right of
justiceto common people. The Act has been amended in 2002, with
theobject to constitute 'Permanent Lok Adalats' for deciding
thedisputes concerning 'Public Utility Services." The
remarkableaspects of the Act are enumerated and explained as
under.1. Legal Aid
The important aspect of the Legal Services Authorities Act,is to
render free legal services to the eligible persons. For
thispurpose, Section 12 of the Act emphasize that every person
whofiles or defends a case is entitled to legal services if that
person
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9is a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe; a victimof
trafficking in human beings or begar; a woman or a child; amentally
ill or otherwise disabled person; a person undercircumstances of
undeserved want such as being a victim of amass disaster, ethnic
violence, caste atrocity, flood, drought,earthquake or industrial
disaster; or an industrial workman; orperson in custody, including
custody in a protective home or injuvenile home or in a psychiatric
hospital or psychiatricnursing home; or any citizen of India whose
annual incomefrom all sources does not exceed Rupees fifty thousand
or suchhigher amount as may be notified by the State Governmentfrom
time to time.17
The free legal services are provided to eligible persons onlyif
the concerned Authority to whom the application for legalservices
is made, is satisfied that such person has a prima faciecase to
prosecute or to defend. An affidavit made by a person ashis income
may be regarded as sufficient for making himeligible to the
entitlement of legal services under this Act unlessthe concerned
Authority has reason to disbelieve suchaffidavit.18
The free legal aid is obtained in any court of law upto
theSupreme Court and in any Tribunal, Revenue Court as well asall
departments of Government and other bodies
dischargingquasi-judicial functions. The legal aid is available in
all civil,criminal, revenue and administrative matters.19 Legal
Servicesmay be provided in all or any one or more than one of
thesemodes, namely: by payment of court fee, process fees,
expensesof witnesses, lawyers fee and all other charges payable
orincurred in connection with any legal proceedings; by
17. The Haryana State Legal Services Authority Rules, 1996, Rule
19.18. The Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, Sec. 13.19. Supra
note 17, Rule 20.
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representation by a legal practitioner in a legal proceedings;
byobtaining of certified copies of judgments, orders, notes
orevidence and other documents in the legal proceedings;
bypreparation of appeal, paper book, including printing
andtranslation of documents, in the legal proceedings; and
bydrafting of legal documents.202. Legal Literacy
The other important aspect of the Act is to impart thelegal
literacy among the people. Therefore, it is mandatory forvarious
Legal Services. Authorities and Committees constitutedunder the
Act, to organise Legal Literacy and Legal AwarenessCamps with the
purpose to spread legal literacy and legalawareness amongst the
people and, in particular, to educateweaker sections of the society
about the rights, benefits andprivileges guaranteed by social
welfare legislations and otherenactments as well as administrative
programmes andmeasures. These authorities/committees organise
regularlylegal literacy camps in the remote rural areas, urban
slumsareas, industrial areas and labour colonies with the help
ofretired judicial/executive officers, social workers,
advocates,law teachers, law students and social welfare
organisations.
In these camps, the people become conscious about thebenefits,
rights, privileges and duties specified under variouswelfare laws
such as Marriage Acts; Labour Legislations; Sexualharassment of
women at working places; Maternity Benefit Act;Dowry Prohibition
Act; Rights of Scheduled Castes, ScheduledTribes and Backward
classes under the various Acts; Rights ofarrested persons;
Panchayati Raj Act, Benefits of ADRs, LokAdalats and Plea
Bargaining; Rights under Mahtama GandhiNational Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (MNREGA); Rights toInformation Act, Environment and
Pollution laws; Rights related20. Id., Rule 21.
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to health, hygiene and sanitation; Rights under
ConsumerProtection Act, and Fundamental Rights, etc.
In these camps, the pamphlets, booklets and posterswhich
contains informations about special rights of women,children,
labourers, arrestees, scheduled castes and scheduledtribes, etc.
are distributed to people. Therefore, these legalliteracy camps
provide opportunity to people to know abouttheir rights and legal
remedies for the protection of theserights. So, these camps seem to
be a significant step forfulfilling the object of the Act.3. Lok
Adalats
The Lok Adalat system has got the legal status under theLegal
Service Authorities Act, 1987. The Act provides the twokinds of Lok
Adalats viz. Lok Adalats and Permanent LokAdalats. In the Act,
various Legal Services Authorities andCommittees21 are authorized
to organize Lok Adalats at suchintervals and places for the purpose
of settling the variousmatters22. Lok Adalats are empowered for the
resolution of allcivil and compoundable criminal cases at
pre-litigation as wellas at pending litigation stage by way of
conciliation, persuationand negotiation between the disputants.
These are bound tosettle the disputes on the basis of major human
percepts ofequity, good conscience, and natural justice. However,
these arenot provided with the imperative authority to dispense
justiceon merits of the dispute.
The forum of Permanent Lok Adalat has been providedwith all the
colours of the spectrum which includes the
21. Every State Legal Services Authority or District Legal
ServicesAuthority or the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee or
everyHigh Court Legal Services Committee or Taluk Legal
ServicesCommittee.
22. Matrimonial Cases, Labour Disputes, Bank Loan Cases,
ElectricityCases, Insurance Cases, Family Disputes, Property
Disputes, ForestCases, Motor Accident Claim Cases, Revenue Cases,
etc.
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settlement of disputes related to public utility
services,23compoundable criminal offences and the matters where
thevalue of property in dispute does not exceed ten lakh rupees.
Inthe conciliation proceeding, the Permanent Lok Adalat
isauthorized to formulate the terms of possible settlement whichmay
be acceptable to the parties to enable them to reach at anamicable
settlement. However, if the parties fail to reach at anagreement,
the Permanent Lok Adalat has power to decide thedispute on merit
except the non-compoundable offences.
The procedure followed by Lok Adalat or Permanent LokAdalat is
simple, flexible, informal and devoid of alltechnicalities but
varied as the nature of the problems. The LokAdalats or Permanent
Lok Adalats are guided by the principlesof natural justice,
objectivity, fair play, equity and otherprinciples of justice
without being bound by the Code of CivilProcedure and the Indian
Evidence Act. It has been conferredwith all the indicia of a court
since it shall be deemed to be acivil court. So, it enjoys the same
powers as that of a civil courtin summoning and enforcing the
attendance of any witness;examining him on oath; reception of
evidence on affidavits;requisition of any public record or
document. Every award ofLok Adalat or Permanent Lok Adalat shall be
final and bindingon all the parties to the dispute and shall be
deemed to be thedecree of civil court. The award of Lok Adalat is
based upon theconsent of the disputants, therefore, no appeal can
be filedagainst the award. However, such award come under thedomain
of the writ jurisdictions of the High Court and theSupreme Court
only when the award has been against thestatutory provisions and
the principle of natural justice.
23. Public utility services include transport services for the
carriage ofpassengers or goods by air, road or water; postal,
telegraph ortelephone services; supply of power, light or water to
the public;system of public conservancy or sanitiation; services in
hospital ordispensary and insurance service.
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Therefore, the Lok Adalat system is indeed a welcomedevelopment
which provides an important juristic technologywith a view to
unburden the workload of the courts as well as todispense cheaper,
quicker and qualitative justice to thecommon people. Therefore, the
researcher's main concern is tostudy the Legal Services Authorities
Act with regard tofunctioning of Lok Adalats. The researcher has
tried to examinethe extent of applicability of Lok Adalat system in
the context ofconstitution, jurisdiction, powers, procedure,
functions andworking of the Lok Adalats and need and scope of
improvement.Object ives of the Study
The researcher has focused on the followingobjectives :
(1) To analyse the existing setup of Lok Adalat system.(2) To
access the present working of the Lok Adalat
system.(3) To know the impact of Permanent Lok Adalat in the
administration of justice.(4) To find out the loopholes of
existing Lok Adalat system.(5) To help find means for achieving the
desired objects of
Lok Adalat system.Hypothesis
1. A review is needed for the setup of Lok Adalat system.2. Lok
Adalat system is not working efficiently and
effectively.3. Creation of Permanent Lok Adalat is a positive
step to
help the administration of justice.4. There is vast ambit of
improvement in the Lok Adalat
system in the present scenario.
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Study Area
HARYANA
Keeping in view the importance of the Lok Adalat and thecapacity
of this noble institution for dispensation of speedy andcheap
justice, the researcher has undertaken the present workto study the
working of Lok Adalats in India in general and inAmbala Division of
State of Haryana in particular.
There are four division in the State of Haryana viz.Ambala,
Hisar, Rohtak and Gurgaon. Ambala Division isconsisted of five
districts viz. Panchkula, Ambala,Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra and
Kaithal. The total geographicalarea of the Division is 8295 Sq.
Kms. In this area, total42,96,085 people reside as per the census
of 2001. The sex
Ambala Div i sion
Study Area
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ratio in the division is 854 females per 1000 males.24 The
peopleof various religions such as Hindu, Sikh, Muslim,
Christian,Buddhists and Jains reside in the division. A large
populationof the division consists of refugees who came from
Pakistanafter partition of India. Now, they are playing a
significant rolein the social, political, economic, cultural and
educationaldevelopment of this region.
The economy of the division is primarily agrarian. Most ofthe
people are engaged in agricultural pursuits. Theagriculturists are
also actively involved in dairy farming,poultry farming, pig
farming, etc. as a side business. Thedivision enjoys an ideal
location being situated adjacent toNational Highway No. 1 and
therefore coming up as animportant industrial belt of Haryana. But,
being agriculturebased economy, industrial setup in the division is
also agro-based, as there are number of rice shellers, food
processingunits, sugar mills, solvent, paper mills, card board
factories,milk plants, fisheries, plywood industries, etc.
Besidesagriculture based industries, the other industries are metal
andutensil units; mechanical engineeringbased industries;chemical
and fertilizers industries; pharmaceutical units; soap,detergent,
rubber and plastic manufacturing factories; electricaland
electronics industries, etc. A good number of people of thisarea
are also engaged in service sectors such as banking,insurance,
hospitality, management, teaching, nursing, etc. TheAmabla Division
is also developing as an educational hub.There are two universities
one at Kurukshetra and other atMullana and one National Institute
of Technology atKurukshetra. A large number of engineering, law,
polytechnic,nursing, education and management colleges are
established inthe region for imparting qualitative education to the
youth. In24. www.haryanaonline.in-visited on 18/7/2010.
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view of above said features of the study area, the researcherhas
tried to analyse the functioning of these Lok Adalats in thisstudy
area with the intention that it may help in strengtheningthe Lok
Adalat system.Research Methodology
Looking at the requirement and usefulness of the topic
ofresearch for society, economy and justice delivery mechanism,the
researcher has adopted empirical and analytical
researchmethodology. The relevant and necessary data has
beencollected from both primary as well as secondary sources.
Theresearcher has attended the Lok Adalats and Permanent LokAdalat
organised at distinct places in the study area from timeto time to
collect relevant data and to observe the working ofthe Lok Adalat
system. The researcher has also interviewedvarious. Legal Services
Authorities for the purpose. The datahas been tabulated and
computed with simple statisticaltechniques. The researcher has
referred the Law CommissionReports; the Reports of other Committees
such as Gujarat LegalAid Committee (1971), Expert Committee on
Legal AidProcessual Justice to the People (1973), Report of
theCommittee on National Juridicare: Equal Justice-Social
Justice,(1971), etc.; notifications of Central and Haryana
StateGovernment and judgements of the Supreme Court and variousHigh
Courts. The relevant material available in the books,newspapers,
journals, periodicals, proceedings ofseminars/conferences and
internet has also been used.Scheme of the Study
The study has been divided into seven chapters. TheChapter I
deals with introductory part of the work.
Chapter I I of the research work deals with Concept andNature of
Lok Adalat . In this Chapter, the Constitutionalprovisions relating
to Lok Adalats, present judicial system and
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its drawbacks, alternative disputes resolution mechanism,
theconcept, nature and benefits of Lok Adalat system have
beenexamined in detail.
Chapter I I I of the study is Historical Perspec t ive relatedto
gensis, importance, kinds, structure, powers and proceduresof Lok
Adalats in Ancient, Medieval, British and PostIndependence
Period.
Chapter IV relates to Legal Framework for Lok Adalat swhich
emphasizes about the various Legal Services Authoritiesat National,
State and District level and Committees at SupremeCourt, High Court
and Taluk level. In the chapter, it has alsobeen discussed in
detail about the constitution, powers,functions and working of
these bodies.
The Chapter V of the study Lok Adalat Law and JudicialApproach
has been devoted to discussion on the provisions ofthe Act which
are designed to organize and constitute the LokAdalats in the
country in uniform manner. It covers theorganization and
composition of Lok Adalats by variousauthorities and committees,
jurisdiction of Lok Adalats,cognizance of cases by Lok Adalats,
powers of Lok Adalats,Permanent Lok Adalats, award of Lok Adalats,
execution ofawards of Lok Adalats, weaknesses of Lok Adalat. All
theseaspects of Lok Adalat system have been examined in the light
ofjudicial pronouncement made by the Apex Court and variousHigh
Courts while interpreting the provisions of the Act.
For analysing the actual implementation of the Lok Adalatsystem
the Chapter VI relates to Performance of Lok Adalatsin Ambala Div
ision. The Chapter covers the result of analysison the basis of
relevant data collected from different primaryand secondary
sources. In the division, Lok Adalat system isfunctioning for
settlement of disputes since 1985. Afterenforcement of the Legal
Services Authorities Act in State in
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1996, the Lok Adalats are being organized by various
legalservices authorities and committees. During the period of
1996-2009, 862 Lok Adalats have been organized in Ambala
division.These Lok Adalats have settled 123801 cases out of
245912cases which brought before them for amicable
resolution.Similarly the other kind of Lok Adalats i.e. Samjhuta
Sadanshave disposed of 11332 cases out of 30829 referred
cases.Permanent Lok Adalat related to public Utility Services
havedetermined 1823 cases out of 2007 taken up cases duringperiod
of 2007-2009. Lok Adalats are determining differentkinds of cases
such as MACT cases, Insurance cases, Familydisputes, Electricity
cases, Pension cases, Civil and Revenuecases, Petty criminal cases,
Bank loan cases, Labour disputes,Pre Litigative cases, etc. The
Chapter also concerns with theresponse of interviews and discussion
with beneficiaries,advocates, concerned authorities, members of Lok
Adalats andgeneral public.
Last Chapter VII of the work deals with conclusion of thestudy
and some valuable suggestions on different aspects ofLok Adalat
mechanism with a hope to improve and to meet thechallenges of the
time.